Michelle Pfeiffer is 51, but she’s still a fox.

She plays the leading lady in the indie drama Personal Effects, after taking on mostly supporting roles in the past few years. And once again, she reminds us why she was once regarded as and may still be the most beautiful woman in Hollywood .

She bring depth and delicacy to the role of a woman struggling to come to terms with the murder of her husband, and coping to raise their child on her own. One moment, she fragile, and the next moment, she’s giggling like a girl. It’s a performance with genuine feeling and female intuition, delivered as only Michelle can.

An intimate drama, Personal Effects may not be a barrel of laughs. But Michelle’s return to screen is a welcome one.

Also opening this week is The Hangover, a hit bromance starring Bradley Cooper. Now this is a barrel of laughs but only if you’re straight. The skimpy storyline has four guys going to Vegas for a bachelor’s party. But when they wake up the next morning, the groom is missing, the hotel room is trashed and there’s a tiger ready to pounce.

Are you laughing? Are you straight?

Personal Effects

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Michelle Pfeiffer once said, It seems that my leading men just get younger the older I get. She wasn’t bluffing. First there was cute and cuddly Paul Rudd (I Could Never Be Your Woman, 2007) and then dashing Rupert Friend (Cheri, 2009) and now the utterly hot Ashton Kutcher. To ageing queens everywhere, the 51-year-old screen siren is certainly a role model.

In the quiet and intimate drama Personal Effects, Michelle plays a woman whose husband is murdered. Ashton plays a man who is mourning the death of his sister. The two become friends through a grief counseling group, and quickly find themselves leaning on each other for moral support.

Gradually, the emotional connection turns into an awkward romance between the older woman and the younger man. But when a couple’s strongest link to each other is the tragedies they’re both trying to move on from, how can the relationship withstand the pain?

Personal Effects is based a beautiful short story by Rick Moody, who also wrote The Ice Storm which Ang Lee turned into an extraordinary drama. Although Personal Effects doesn’t reach the genius levels of The Ice Storm, its still an affecting film about what people have to do to get over a tragedy.

Director David Hollander shoots his debut film in gloomy grays and blues. But the star wattage of Michelle and Ashton cannot be dimmed. They both look immensely attractive in this film Michelle is sexier at 51 than any woman we’ve ever seen, and Ashton looks very handsome when he’s not horsing around and playing punk.

This movie is interesting to those who’ve missed Michelle Pfeiffer’s graceful screen presence, and those who want to see a rare serious side of Ashton Kutcher. Though Ashton doesn’t always convey the pain he needs to, Michelle always keeps the picture together. Her performance is warm and radiant, full of intuition and subtlety.

If women are like wine, then actresses are like Montrachet 1978s absolutely priceless.

A movie made for straight men who wear ugly clothes, drink shitty beer and call women chicks isn’t exactly for the LGBT crowd. But hey, this one is actually kinda funny! Well, kinda

Four guys a groom (Justin Bartha), his out-of-control bro-in-law (Zach Galifianakis), a playboy (Bradley Cooper) and an average Joe (Ed Helms) go to Vegas for Justins bachelor party. But after one wild night, three guys wake up in the hotel suite with a hangover while the groom goes missing. Oh, theres also a tiger, chickens and a baby in the closet.

The party, believe it or not, has only just started. Zach, Bradley and Ed must now retrace their steps and figure out what exactly happened that night. The answers may have something to do with the naked Asian guy with a crowbar, the sexy stripper, Mike Tyson singing Phil Collins and a whole lot of crazies.

To be perfectly honest, we weren’t too wild about this film. And the dude humor was a hit-and-miss affair for us. But the straight men sitting around us were guffawing so hard, it became infectious. Indeed, a couple of them laughed so hard that they cried one of those rare instances where we got to see ah bengs cry.

So if youre queer, make sure you queue up behind a group of guys and get seats right next to them. Alternatively, you can just skip the movie altogether.